Rez: Eqstr[Tera]

by NiGHTcapD

22.1: Chorus

I am waiting in a chatroom.

Or rather, I was or will be by the time you read this. For those this whole log is intended for: yes, this is just a forum post to you, but I have to be open to the idea of others-be they human, alien, or pony-reading this in the future or (Lumi forbid) the past. In fact, that's exactly the reason I'm writing this preamble; Twilight found the forums, and found my sides of the stories. She wanted to chat about it, but I was busy at the time, so we had to schedule a time to do so, and then someone found out about it-so now we're doing it in a "public" chatroom.

Only fellow hackers who have confirmed that they read my pony posts, and have been doing so for a while (so that no one could just suddenly show up and read them all just to get in), gained access to the room, which my computer acts as host server for. Among these are many different types, though none of my usual group (see WH3, ID4) decided they wanted to come by.

What follows is a transcript of the chatroom. It goes on a bit long, as live chatrooms are wont to do, so I split it up into two parts. This also gives me time to remove any sensitive information; first and foremost, anything directly involving the reveal or partial revealing of identities. With that in mind, enjoy.

---

room activated
Enter nickname: Rez
Joined room with admin privileges
/backlog permanent
Backlog settings changed to Permanent
Rez: :note: I woke up this morning, didn't recognize the man in the mirror :note:
Rez: Test For Echo
Impossibru joined room
Impossibru: :note: He was always a thousand miles away, but still standin' in front of your face :note:
Impossibru: Echo
Rez: For reference, and introductory purposes, I will be providing a short description on each of you guys as you enter this chatroom. This is mostly for Twilight's benefit, as she has not met any of you guys before.
Rez: Impossibru is a really good hacker, and a friend of mine. We live in the same city, which means a lot for secrecy but not as much for anonymity. He was one of my mentors back before I got my vision (and the most major one I've ever had), and helped me develop several of the programs I now use consistently.
Impossibru: High praise coming from the most badass one of them all
Rez: Hey, everyone starts somewhere.
Sanshiro joined room
Sanshiro: So we're opening with song lyrics? Gimme a sec
Sanshiro: :note: If you beg or if you borrow, you may never find your way. :note:
Rez: Sanshiro is, first and foremost, a modder. A modder of very old games. While he isn't as fully capable of helping on large projects, his exploits create necessary and fun distractions that help keep us sane and happy. His name is also in reference to an old advertising campaign for a video game console; the ads spawned a cult icon, and "Sanshiro" is a part of the moniker.
Sanshiro: Segasatan, shiro!
Impossibru: Whatever you say, man.
Impossibru: So, who's next?
Rez: Dunno, it could be a while
Sanshiro: It the trawl cumin'?
Impossibru: Careful now.
Sanshiro: Is*
ExtraCensoredWithCheese joined room
Rez: Speak of the Devil, and he shall appear.
ExtraCensoredWithCheese: :note: And another one rides the bus! :note:
ExtraCensoredWithCheese: That's the natrue of my game, man.
Rez: ExtraCensoredWithCheese, often abbreviated to ECWC or ExtraCensored or having jokes made such as "Cheez Whiz" (and on one occasion, "Inappropriate Conduct"), is quite simply, a troll. The good kind though; he makes us laugh, he spreads out his victims pretty thin (because every joke needs a butt, so says him), he pwns himself pretty often too, and even when he isn't actively owning face, he tends to be a pretty active member of our community.
ExtraCensoredWithCheese: Butts
Sanshiro: Butts
Impossibru: Butts
Sanshiro: Grog!
ExtraCensoredWithCheese: Shuts, he's not finished yet.
Rez: Arguably, of those that most everyone in our community knows, he's the least skilled at outright hacking; he makes up for it by reading everything. Every entry, every post, and he tends to remember them all pretty well. Even if he can't utilize the knowledge he hears about, he always knows someone who does, and can be very quick to prod us into action if need be.
Impossibru: Makes up for it in spades
Sanshiro: For Shovelry!
Rez: Will Twi even get a small portion of the references I don't explain?
ExtraCensoredWithCheese: Does she need to?
Rez: Well...she can always ask.
Rez: I mean, it's not like we're talking sensitive material right now.
ExtraCensoredWithCheese: "right now"
Impossibru: Let's not, at all, and say that we didn't.
Rez: And that would be the smart decision.
RichPurnell joined room
RichPurnell: Major Tom to ground control!
Sanshiro: Rich Purnell is a steely-eyed missile man
Rez: That he is. The username is that of a fictional character from the story "The Martian", but the job is similar. RP is, in reality, logging in from a non-terrestrial computer; he lives his life on (a spacestation? A nonearth planet[oid]? He never told us) and only hacks as an external function of his job of programming.
RichPurnell: If someone were to find out which one is me, and I get caught up directly or indirectly in illegal activities, I could be jettisoned. I don't think we want that.
ExtraCensoredWithCheese: SPAAAAACE
Sanshiro: Hey, that's my line!
ExtraCensoredWithCheese: Do you own it? ;P
Rez: Settle down, you two.

<salty banter omitted>
TyphoidMarionette joined room
TyphoidMarionette: There's no fate, take control.
Rez: Brain Power!
RichPurnell: girl
Impossibru: Gurl
Sanshiro: GIRL
ExtraCensoredWithCheese: AAAAE A E I E A JOOOOOOOOOOO
Rez: Mary (nickname, but may be real one) runs a botnet. What this means is that certain computers she's managed to infect (typhoid was, is, a disease) can be used by anyone with the proper connections, and often, transactions, as effectively puppets (marionette is a type of puppet on strings) for a brief amount of time. Don't let the length fool you; a computer only takes about a tiny portion of a second to send a spam message, and it doesn't cost anyone much to get 1000 botnet-connected computers ("bots" for short) to donate 0.5 seconds of their time to spam some random dude, aside from the random dude's time.
TyphoidMarionette: Don't forget to leave out the methods of getting to that point.
Rez: How could I? The thing about getting the puppeteering set up client-side is that it just takes a few lines of code to begin with. A cookie, an add-on to a document that detaches, it's that innocuous. Practically untraceable. From there it manages to make itself look like a trusted program while updating itself into something that can slave the computer's processing power in very precise ways; and that detects when doing so would be noticed, mostly based on how much CPU is actively being used and how much the user themself is interacting with their chosen device. (Doing magic when the muggles can notice it is a big no-no.) I know there's a lot of other stuff that goes into it, especially in terms of keeping the program undetected, but I don't feel like going so much farther into that than I already have.
TyphoidMarionette: So, how's your political problem going?
ExtraCensoredWithCheese: You're still dealing with that?
Impossibru: Is it still as bad as you started?
Rez: Going, unfortunately, but no; I've been making definitive progress as of late.
TyphoidMarionette: This oughta be good.
RichPurnell: This oughta be good
TyphoidMarionette: jinx
RichPurnell: JINX
RichPurnell: damn
Rez: For one thing, we have something to call him without giving away any real names. I figured out a derogatory name for him.
ExtraCensoredWithCheese: SHARE
TyphoidMarionette: This oughta be really good.
Impossibru: Do tell!
Sanshiro: Beans spill
RichPurnell: Pressure's on. What's so amazing about this one?
Rez: You tell me.
Rez: Sorrento. IOI655321.
RichPurnell: ...one hell of an insult, right there.
TyphoidMarionette: wait what how
Sanshiro: Reference to Ready Player One. Nolan Sorrento was the face of an antagonistic corporation. IOI^%%#@! was his tag.
Impossibru: ^%%#@!
Sanshiro: I was hlding down Shift! cut me some slack.
Rez: Shushie! It gets better.
Sanshiro: There's no way it can get much better than that.
Rez: Oh, but it can. Weeks of grueling effort have yielded results, specifically location. And I managed to apply a bug to their servers that will erase things unless I voice a very specific set of numbers and letters into my computer at a very specific time, as yet to be set. It also posted on their boards a picture of a very certain model of car, and instructions and a clue as text that can be updated remotely by me.
Impossibru: What's it say now?
Rez: In fine print below, what I can make it do. In the lower third, it states "If I open my eyes, your shit disappears".
TyphoidMarionette: What's the car?
RichPurnell: It's a Blue Mink Ford. It has to be.
Rez: Someone's been doing their research.
Impossibru: The song reference is obvious, if you think about it. And knowing you...
RichPurnell: You have good taste. Why wouldn't I do my research?
Rez: <blush> Thanks, man.
Rez: </blush> Though I don't suppose you know the alphanumeric?
RichPurnell: The plate?
RichPurnell: Why would I put it out there for the world to see?
Rez: Point taken. But yeah, you know. And if the rest of you want to, then do your own research.
ExtraCensoredWithCheese: Laaaame
RichPurnell: I'll PM you later if you still want to know.
T_Star joined room
Rez: Ah, the guest of honor as it were. I believe she needs no introduction?
TyphoidMarionette: There she is!
RichPurnell: Even more out-of-this-world than me. Major credit.
ExtraCensoredWithCheese: DA HYYYYPE
Sanshiro: Welcome to the Fantasy Zone, Get Ready!
Impossibru: Glad to have you!
Rez: Simmer down, guys, let her finish the backlog.
T_Star: Wow. I had no idea you had so many friends.
Impossibru: You don't get far in our line of work while lasting as long as we do without making plenty of friends.
Rez: Truer words, not often spoken.
TyphoidMarionette: Coordination is a must.
Sanshiro: The breakthroughs of one mean shit if they can't apply them.
ExtraCensoredWithCheese: "We are hackers, crackers, hacktivists, phishers, agents, spies, or just the guy from next door. We are Muslims, we are Christians, we are Jews; we come from all races, countries, religions, and ethnicity."
RichPurnell: We are anyone who wants to be, because it takes all sorts.
Rez: Twilight Sparkle? Allow me to officially welcome you to this chatroom, and to a portion of our group of hackers.
Rez: Welcome to what some of us like to call "the brightest part of the darknet".
T_Star: I could barely be more honored to "be" here.
Rez: We could scarcely be more honored to have you.

Author's Note:

Me introducing you to several minor characters. Me splitting up the chapter adding an opening segment to the chapter so as to better get chapters out. Me trying to rouse my storywriting abilities so as not to leave you hanging and get myself out of writer's block.
It didn't work as well as I thought it would. More than six months and no update...this is behavior you've admittedly come to expect from me. I have to apologize for it. My muse needs to balance many things on many sites, and I have an amazing imagination paired with biting off more than I can chew. A trade on deviantArt, the Infinite Loops project, original writings, a collab-crossover for this very story (not completely my bad but the point still stands)...a NaNoWriMo that I can't do alone.
So I simply must apologize. There's nothing to play by ear anymore, I know exactly what I want to write from here on out. I don't want to let you down if you enjoy this story.
Peace.

Comments

[DarfsydePhil]

Holy shit I loved Rez and Child of Eden. Did you play the PS4 game yet? I was thinking about buying it.

[NiGHTcapD]

7704413 I haven't actually played any of the games yet, as much as I want to. I want, so much want to play Rez Infinite. But I don't own a PS4, or in fact any Playstation, so I'll just have to hope it pans out.